Sorry
by wtfwinchesters
Summary: Spoilers for 7.21 in that you won't understand if you haven't seen it. / A moment from the past, a moment from the present, and a simple board game to bridge the gap.


"Do you want to go first?"

Dean, lingering on the edge of sleep and drooling on his pillow, opens his eyes. Instantly, he's picking through his mind, trying to remember where he's heard those words before, that exact phrasing. It's there somewhere, but he can't reach for it through the sleepy haze of fog that's wiped his mind of anything but thoughts of the warm bed. He blinks a few times before he realises that the other side of the bed is empty, and the voices are coming from the den down the hall.

He sits up slowly, tries to wipe the sleep from his eyes. It's 7:30 in the morning, which means the perpetrators in the den are going to get a strict talking to for being up so early and for being loud. There's a little giggle, a deeper chuckle, and Dean rolls his eyes, standing up and walking slowly down the hall. He peeks into the kitchen, sees half-eaten, abandoned plates of eggs and bacon on the counter, and snatches a crispy piece off one of them before moving next door to the den.

He's about to open his mouth to protest being woken up, but the scene in front of him warms his heart and stops him. Cas is lying on his stomach on the floor, staring down a little girl,_ their_ little girl, a board game between them. Annie's lying on her stomach too, little feet in the air, staring fiercely back. "It's _your_ turn," she says, and the corner of Dean's mouth turns up to hear that little bit of snark there. She's not biologically related to either of them, but she's been theirs since she was a month old, and now that she's six, she is just _DeanandCas _through and through.

It takes a minute for Dean to realise what game they're playing, and when he reads the word SORRY! printed across the middle of the game beneath a stack of worn out cards, he remembers.

"_Do you want to go first_?" Cas had asked, and Dean had been so _angry_ then, so frustrated, so completely miserable with the state of the world, his life, his _angel_that he'd swept the board onto the floor. He bites his lip, remembering the look on Castiel's face when he'd done that, remembering the look on his face as he'd picked up the pieces, one by one, when he could just as easily have put them all back in the box the same way he'd taken them out.

He can't think whether he ever apologised for that or not; he thinks maybe it was sort of a given once the world settled down and so did he and Cas. (Not that things ever really settled down in this life; their house is as demon/angel/monster proof as it could possibly get because not taking precautions never got them anywhere.) Still, he feels a little guilty, and so he eats his piece of bacon, crosses the room, and gets down on his stomach too and says, "Can I play next game?"

"Sure," Annie says, not even lifting her gaze from the game as Cas picks up a card.

"Move any one pawn from Start to a square occupied by any opponent, sending that pawn back to its own Start," he reads out, and smirks. He grabs Annie's pawn that's nearest her safety zone, and puts it back in start, putting one of his own pawns in its place.

Annie looks like she's about to object, but she just puts on her game face and draws her own card. "Move a pawn 2 spaces forward and draw again," she says and does so. Dean's pretty impressed with how she handles herself. He never got to play this game as a kid but he imagines he'd have been rather bossy about it. While she's taking her turn, Dean leans over and kisses Cas good morning. When he pulls back, Cas is smiling, fingers trailing over the edge of the board; Dean knows he remembers too, and he simply murmurs, "Sorry."

Cas shrugs a little (he's become so glaringly human that sometimes Dean thinks he always was one) and says, "Yeah, me too." Underneath those words is the indication that Dean was forgiven for anything and everything long ago.

Annie looks suspiciously between them, decides not to ask, and growls, "Your move, papa," like winning this game will admit her to the Olympics or something. Dean has to admit that sometimes she's just way too precocious for her own good.

After Cas wins the first game, Annie hands Dean a pile of red pawns. "Aw, c'mon," he objects, "can't I be green?"

Annie rolls her eyes, snatches the red pawns back, and hands him the four green ones. "Yeah, fine, if you're gonna be a baby about it," she says, and Dean just stares at her for a minute, grinning. "_What_?" she finally bursts out. "Are you gonna play or not?"

"Yeah, yeah," Dean says, and puts the green pawns on his start space. "I was just thinking about how much I love you."

Annie draws a card, clearly declaring her divine right to go first, and without missing a beat says, "No chick flick moments, dad."


End file.
